Getting started with armor

[hopventure]

Ok, I would really like to start making mods for New Vegas and FO3 but there is so much information out there it is very difficult to find out where to start.

So I'll make this really simple by stating exactly what I want to start with and hopefully somebody can point me where to begin.

 

I want to make an armor mod.

Short version how do I take a new armor model and get it into the game.

 

Specifically, if it is possible I want to make separate female models for combat armor and power armor.

Every other (cloth based) armor has a female variant, but not combat armor or power armor (obviously armor plates don't conform to the wearer's frame. I'm not too concerned with realism here).

So if its possible I want to make my own female variants of these two armors if it is at all possible. If there is only one file referenced for power armor and it just scales it to female size, I obviously won't be able to make a new version without it affecting male versions.

 

I'm a graphic artist and have both 3D Max 2009 and Maya 2011 at my disposal (and am intimately aware of how to export from Maya to Max), so making the model and texture will be no problem.

What I do need help with is how to actually make the mod itself and get it into the game (saving the proper file formats, creating an .esm/.bsa, etc.)

 

So could somebody please guide me to a starting point for armor mods?

 

 

(optional)

As a substitute, if it turns out you can't change the power armor or combat armor models how about making a body mod instead? In the future I'd like to mess with playable races.

[WastelandAssassin]

you most certainly CAN make a female version of these armors

 

basically, the model is in NIF format, which is only read by NifSkope

you will need to extract the model to a format that you can open in a 3D modeling program like Blender (3D Max would also do very well, as far as i know)

then you will need to change the model to the female shape that you want, and retexture it to fit (which as you said, is no problem)

 

then you need to convert the model into NIF format again, and set all the details that are needed

 

and for the last part of making it appear in game, you need to open the GECK, open the armor that you changed, and place your model as the female version (this way, male characters will get the normal armor, while female characters will have your female version)

 

if you want a good tutorial on what to do, once you have the meshes and textures, look here

it should be the same with New Vegas, as it is with FO3, with just different paths

 

hope this helps :)